May 21, 2009

Suburban Life joins Tribune and Doings in demanding release of theater documents denied to LG Today

In an editorial published in its May 20 edition, the Suburban Life newspaper said that La Grange officials should make public documents they refused to release last summer related to the village's decision to extend $1 million in financial assistance to the owners of the La Grange Theatre.

The documents—which include reports prepared by McKenna & Associates, a financial services firm that specializes in municipal and economic development financing and planning, and Holland & Knight, the village's law firm—were among several requested in May 2008 by La Grange Today publisher Thom Rae under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

In taking its stance, Suburban Life becomes the third area newspaper to publicly support Rae's request. The Chicago Tribune May 3 ran a front-page story critical of village officials and also compared an unredacted copy of an executive memorandum written by village manager Bob Pilipiszyn regarding the theater-financing proposal that it obtained with a version provided last year to Rae that had 15 of 19 paragraphs blacked out. The Doings newspaper last August also published an editorial criticizing the village's refusal to release the documents.

As Suburban Life points out, Rae was able to specifically request the documents only because they had been clearly identified by village president Liz Asperger during a public workshop in which she also encouraged trustees to discuss them openly. (The Tribune coverage also referenced the workshop disclosure in a video interview supplement to the online version of its story.)

In a letter from Asperger published in last Sunday's Tribune, she wrote, "[T]here are occasions when the best interests of the community are served
by allowing its elected officials to confidentially consider a
proposal, review proprietary financial information or discuss
preliminary recommendations regarding a sensitive matter."

In a news story that accompanied Monday's editorial, Suburban Life Rae said, "I figured by the time you’re discussing documents in a public setting, they’re no longer preliminary drafts and not necessarily confidential."